Do Good. Bluegrass. BlueGood.

Getting Started with WordPress

WordPress can help lift your small business off the ground.

Not long ago, building a small business website required either personal knowledge of HTML and CSS or a budget to hire someone with that knowledge. No changes could be made to a website without understanding the coding languages on which the web was built.

That all changed around the turn of the century with the invention of the user-friendly Content Management System, or CMS. With a CMS, website owners were suddenly empowered to make changes to their site simply by logging in to the backend admin panel of the website.

With an interface that isn’t much different from typing text in Microsoft Word, a website owner can now easily manipulate text and graphics themselves.

These days, the best-known and most widely-used content management system for small business owners is WordPress. It’s come a long way since its launch in 2003. In fact, you can use WordPress.com to create a website without any experience whatsoever. Just create an account and make a few pages by typing text and uploading some images. It’s really that simple. No coding experience necessary.

Of course, the first website you build with WordPress.com probably won’t be winning any design competitions. It takes practice to get good and develop an eye for web design, but the point is now anyone can build and edit a website using a content management system like WordPress.

Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org

WordPress.com is a great resource for anyone wanting to build a simple and easy blog very quickly. You can literally have a website published on the web in about 20 minutes. It’s designed especially as a blogging platform and works great for those seeking a little slice of the web they can call their own. You aren’t going to build an elaborate small business website on WordPress.com, but it’s certainly a good place to start your journey if you’re just beginning to learn.

WordPress.org, on the other hand, gives small business owners all the tools they need to design and create a robust and feature-rich website that any business owner would be proud to share with customers.

Generally when you hear people say they have a website built with WordPress, they are talking about the dot org version of the software. Once the software has been installed on a server and properly launched, you can do just about anything with it. Over 100 million websites use WordPress worldwide, and it has the largest market share of all content management systems.

WordPress is an excellent web solution for small and large businesses alike. But don’t take my word for it. Here are just a few of the sites currently running WordPress software:

Even though WordPress.org gives your business more features and more power, not everyone needs to go for this more labor-intensive, more expensive option. Here’s a breakdown from the WordPress team of the differences between the free version and the self-hosted version.

Why We Use WordPress at BlueGood Design

All of our small business websites are built with WordPress because we’ve found the CMS to be so user-friendly for small business owners. Once we install the software on our server and do the initial design and set up for your new website, we teach you how to manage it and give you the keys to make changes whenever you want.

You won’t have to feel powerless when it comes to your website because we give you full access to the WordPress backend admin panel with your own log in. You will be surprised how easy it is to manage once the groundwork has been laid.

WordPress is the perfect answer for small businesses looking to create a web presence without a huge initial investment and you don’t need to take a web design class or even have any prior knowledge to get started.

I encourage you to check out the free resources at WordPress.com and WordPress.org to decide if WordPress is right for your small business. Don’t hesitate to contact us if we can answer any questions. Our team is committed to working with Kentucky small businesses and we’re happy to help!